Levelling The Playing Field
Bosco Menezes, Qatar
My name is Bosco Nicholas Menezes. I am a communications professional, with a keen eye for photography. Football is a passion for me - I used to play the sport in my youth on the streets of Doha and Mumbai and at school, both in Qatar and India. I am a huge Liverpool man!
What did you try to show with the photos? Was there any wider meaning with the photos?
Football is a universal sport, it brings people of all types together; creed, caste, colour is no bar! I wanted to show exactly these attributes, that the sport brings together people of all faiths and fraternities.
Who is in the photos? Where were the photos taken?
There are a series of images taken at a makeshift football academy. The reason I call it a makeshift academy is because the Founder is a former sports photographer who lost his job at a local newspaper, but still continues to offer football coaching free of cost to his young enthusiastic subjects. These boys are mostly Indian expats from various schools living in a relatively new suburb of Doha. Every Saturday morning over 50 children converge at Barwa Village, under the tutelage of Coach Hanson Joseph. They not only enjoy the sport but also make new friends and have a great laugh.
There was also a friend’s academy that specializes in teaching the nuances of sports fitness coupled with football and field hockey. The beauty of this academy is that it has both girls and boys playing together. Their mums come in for fitness lessons too, thus making it a very family oriented sports academy.
Others were pure luck. We were driving around our neighborhood and suddenly a ball pops out in between two buildings just in front of our car. We swung over, parked and went trigger happy. We even interviewed some of the kids. The beauty of these boys playing!! There was a wonderful mix of Arab and Asian kids playing the most popular sport on the planet. They didn’t know each other’s mother tongue but that didn’t stop they from having a great game of football.
What is your favourite photo? Why?
It portrays a father and son playing football just below their building. The father works long hours but never fails to spend time with his son who loves football. He is my neighbour on the same floor and I play with the boy at times in our corridor during afternoons. But on weekends the son coaxes his father to join him for a 1 on 1 session in our alley way. I had gone to the grocery store and on my return, I was treated to this spectacle. The boy aspires to play professional football someday either in the Qatar Stars League or Indian Professional League.
What role does football play in Qatari society?
Football plays the role of honey to a bee. It brings everyone under one roof to enjoy the sport, imparting camaraderie, goodwill and exuding passion. It inspires the younger generations and pleases the older ones.
What changes are happening in Qatari football culture?
Qatar is a catalyst right now, not just locally but regionally and dare I say internationally. With the World Cup just around the corner, there is an influx of international football stars playing in the local league and with so many football games of international stature taking place in Qatar. It has created a World Cup atmosphere way before the curtain raiser in 2022.
What is the most surprising or interesting part of Qatari football culture?
There is a plethora of die-hard Qatari female football fans, who followed the sport not just in the recent past but from way back when Qatar reached the Final of the 1981 FIFA World Youth Championship in Australia.
Why is football so important for your community?
Football is a sport that a rich man and a poor man can have access to. This evens the playing field and builds community trust sans frontiers.
What does football mean to you?
Football is an adrenaline rush. Passion and love rub off onto all that live it.
What will be the biggest impact of the World Cup in 2022?
The legacy that the World Cup will leave behind is for the world to appreciate a tiny Arab nation holding the greatest sporting spectacle for the world to watch. There will be a number of firsts - the first carbon neutral World Cup, the first World Cup to have two games played on the same day at the same stadium, the first World Cup where you don’t' have to fly across cities to catch a game.
What is the future for football in Qatar?
I can see the Qatar Stars League getting a lot of attention and one day it may even rival the top European leagues. Qatar has a fabulous sports infrastructure that will only bolster its sportsmen to dream bigger and achieve more.
